Lowell, Massachusetts (Part 24)

Merrimack and Aiken Streets

Again, more pictures that have been laying around for a good half year.

These pictures, many taken by Jen, are largely along the upper stretch of Merrimack Street on her way to UMass Lowell North. After that, they are taken along the Northern Canal and up Aiken Street, on a late fall trip to Top Donut. Upper Merrimack Street looks like at one point it was an extension of downtown, and certainly a former streetcar route. I've seen old maps refer to it as Uptown, while I have also heard (and even recently!) that name referring to the Jackson/Appleton/Middlesex/Central area. Many of the storefronts along upper Merrimack Street are empty today and some of the buildings are gone. As one moves away from downtown into what was once the central area of French Canadian life in Lowell, a lot of vestiges of the community remain, although much of the actual neighborhood and people are long gone.

The corner of Market and Shattuck Streets. Home to the parking lot of the Athenian Corner. This summer, they're setting up tables outside in the lot.

Civil War frescoes on the fascade of the library/Memorial Hall. Had never really noticed these before...

Saint Jean Baptiste church. Built around 1890 and closed around 1990. It was a Spanish church for a while, but I think it's abandoned again.

A statue of Reverend Father André-Marie Garin, an Oblate of Mary Immaculate, next to the church. For me to write more about the history of the church and the Franco-American community would largely be to rip off an excellent page that already exists on the subject (I'm only a little French Canadian and wasn't raised in the tradition), so I'll just link to it here: The Franco-Americans in Lowell, Massachusetts.

The rectory.

A nice house on Merrimack Street. At one point, before this became a working class tenement neighborhood, it must've been an upper-middle-class section. The far end of Merrimack Street, Pawtucket Street, was a wealthy area at one point.

Saint Joseph's High School. Predicatably, now closed. It was folded into Lowell Catholic down on Stevens Street many years ago. It is being renovated into housing by the Coalition for a Better Acre.

A longtime businesss based in the neighborhood gets a new building. St. Jeanne D'Arc Credit Union is building a five-story office building with ground floor retail on the site of the Tremont Power House, which we visited back on page 4. The bottom level will be brick to evoke the former mill, and the wheel pits will remain. This is on Father Morissette Boulevard, apparently named after a much more recent Oblate. I think before that, this street was called French Street Extension, itself a major boulevard that was part of the urban renewal project many decades ago.

City Hall with the sun rising behind it over the Northern Canal. I like how this picture came out.

Turning up Aiken Street we can see the Lawrence Mills. The rennovation of the Hub Hosery building and the next one over continues. Wonder what the odds are this company will see any return on their investment in this condo market. UMass Lowell was supposed to buy these buildings and never did. They have been building in the neighborhood however, and also bought the Doubletree hotel downtown and have a deal pending to buy the Tsongas Arena. They are apparently the only Hockey East team to not own their own rink.

This little tombstone looking thing is actually a monument to the Little Canada neighborhood, complete with a listing of all the streets that no longer exist or were stripped of their residences. It's actually made of parts of old houses. The neighborhood was apparently an overcrowded and dilapidated slum, but I'm not so sure the projects, low-rise office buildings, and massive surface parking lots that replaced it were a fair trade. Today, this would've never happened. Because we learned from mistakes like this.

Approaching the Aiken Street Bridge.

Our destination, Top Donut! Top donut is a very small local chain that makes fantastic donuts and pretty decent coffee. Cash only, please.

A nearby block of West 6th Street. The red building had burned shortly before when a fight (I think over drugs) escalated into throwing a burning FOR SALE sign through a ground floor window and onto a bed. Old-fashioned balloon construction strikes again.

We walked back along the VFW Highway. Since the big floods, the trees were removed and you can see the entire riverfront pretty well, especially when the trees are bare. These are the Lawrence Mills.

Tsongas Arena....

Riverplace Towers...

Boott Mills, Bridge St Bridge, Massachusetts Mills.

A pumphouse in the median of the VFW. At one point, I believe these took in underground water for drinking, but I'm not sure they still do. I think that the intake station is now located near the Tyngsboro line in Pawtucketville.

The new CVS at the intersection of Bridge Street and the VFW highway - one of the most dangerous intersections in Massachusetts. I think they did a pretty good job with it - it doesn't look all that out of place even though it is a suburban style single story building with a drive through and a large parking lot.